“Most BBMP revenue inspectors are on election duty. They are not able to focus on collecting the property tax. The BBMP revenue officials have already collected around Rs 2,500 crore till date,’’ says M Shivaraju, a ruling party corporator.

The departmental inquiry was ordered against the five officers, who had been posted in Bommanahalli zone when the breach happened, on the basis of the findings of the preliminary inquiry conducted by joint commissioner (revenue) M Venkatachalapathy.

On March 19, Prasad issued an order to all joint commissioners, town planning department officials, all chief engineers and head of the legal cell, directing them to maintain the earlier directions pertaining to the buffer zone.

A formal decision will be taken during the council meeting scheduled sometime later this month. Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun announced this during the special meeting convened to discuss the water crisis in the city.

There’s the muscle power and the usual greasing of palms but now unscrupulous builders have found a legal loophole too – getting an injunction order. And it costs them just Rs 45 -- Rs 25 for the court fee and Rs 20 in the process fee.

Incidentally, an order to this effect was issued on February 2 by additional chief secretary (PWD) Rajneesh Goel to BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad, even before the alignment for the controversial corridors has been finalised.

The draft allows district-level authorities, headed by the district magistrate, to seek exemption from public hearing while granting green clearance for sand mining in areas up to five hectares of land.

The court said it is the obligation of the government to protect its citizens who belong to middle class family and invested their hard earned money in buying flats but got cheated by builders and facing uncertainty.